Win for con­sumers

FOR far too long Ade­laide mo­torists have been ripped off at the petrol bowser.

As if the lu­di­crous price spikes were not enough, the fact prices can vary by up to 20c a litre be­tween sub­urbs has made the sit­u­a­tion even worse.

Any ini­tia­tive, in this case real time in­for­ma­tion on petrol prices, that can save con­sumers hard-earned cash is more than wel­come in the cur­rent eco­nomic en­vi­ron­ment.

The fact that this mea­sure is ex­pected to save mo­torists tens of mil­lions of dol­lars a year in­di­cates just how big a ride the oil com­pa­nies have been tak­ing South Aus­tralians on. The State Gov­ern­ment de­serves a shout-out for con­duct­ing the trial, and so do those who have been lob­by­ing for it, namely the RAA and this news­pa­per, for too long.

In the age where most of the pop­u­la­tion has a mo­bile tele­phone, ac­cess to data of this type will greatly as­sist mo­torists to make an in­formed choice when they need to fill up.

And it is more than likely giv­ing mo­torists ac­cess to real time petrol prices will also re­sult in more com­pe­ti­tion be­tween oil com­pa­nies – giv­ing them an­other win.